My wife decided to surprise me and clean my computer room yesterday. SHe did a good job, but in the process broke the Wireless Switch/Router I had in my room. A very fine Netgear, that had a few quirks, but had been very reliable. So last night off to the store I went for another. Since I had to pick up a couple of things at the big box office supply store, I decided to get it there. Unfortunately, they only had D-link and Linksys.

I had bought a D-Link about three years ago, and it was nothing but trouble! But hey, 3 years, they are still in business, so what they heck. Save a trip to the big box electonics store.

BIG MISTAKE! I spent 2 hours on the phone last night with D-Link, and finally hung up. Why? While I could get the notebook to connect (not under the higher Encryption standards, just under the basic), it would not allow the laptop to pick up an IP address, or even to see anthing but itself! (even tho it was 'connected' with 'excellant' signal strength! I finally got tired of waiting for their second tier support (on hold for 15 minutes) and I am just going to return it today and take the trip to the Big Box electonics store.

In addition to the Wireless 'non-connection', I also noticed that my streaming audio was more like 'skipping audio'. I had that problem also with the old D-link as it seemed the box would keep dropping its connection to the main house switch.

I am going back to netgear. Or even Belkin. And I am never touching a D-link again! They Suck!

Thanks for the heads up. I was considering getting some wireless hardware for my second PC, since it's a bit far from the other one, and I believe D-link (not really sure) was what the guys at Compusa offered. All together with the wireless card for the PC it would have been around $150 + tax. I will check out netgear online and see what I can find.

BTW DrGuy, that PC you gave me? It's dying on me. The MoBo must be bad. It's very unstable and freezes up quite often. Am searching for a replacement for my kids so they can leave my new PC alone. . Thanks a bunch, it was a life saver for the time it had left.

BTW DrGuy, that PC you gave me? It's dying on me. The MoBo must be bad. It's very unstable and freezes up quite often. Am searching for a replacement for my kids so they can leave my new PC alone. . Thanks a bunch, it was a life saver for the time it had left

Sorry about that. I guess it was its time. It was fine here, but when they go, they go. It is probably the power supply. They are cheap to replace. If you dont mind shelling out $40, might want to replace that and see if it is ok.

As for D-Link, some people buy them and have no problems. But I have had nothing but problems. So back to Netgear. I will post how much I paid for it tonight. I thoughthe D-Link was pricey at $70, I think you can get them for around $50, but it has been awhile since I bought one. So will let you know.

I'm on my second D-Link router and neither one of them have caused any problems. The first one I had was washed away during Hurricane Katrina, so I could only assume that I would still be using it today.

I've had good success with D-Link products, but have found a few quirks in their configurations that weren't well documented. Some features like "Dynamic Fragmentation" support that interfered with Xbox Live and also with strong network connections in general.

They have some quirks in their wireless support because they've implemented their own "super fast" standard that typically has to be turned off, but otherwise I've never had issue with them. In fact, I give D-Link extra credit for replacing a router that failed about 3 years out of warranty. That one failed because I flashed the ROM with a newer update that didn't seem to take as it should and wouldn't let me get access to the router again once it failed. Stuff like that happens.

Netgear? Decent enough for my first home router, but had the absolute worst problems with Xbox Live support on it.

LinkSys? More problems with Xbox Live.

So, again, who do I use - D-Link. The two routers I have at home work perfectly, the one I use for setup processes at work, works perfectly, etc.

And for the record, when I have called support I've been on hold for a while, but have gotten my problems/issues resolved without much trouble once the higher level tech picked up.